Kitchen utensils, medical supplies, dental tools and other small articles are stored in special partitioned drawers which permit separation of small articles while stored in the drawer. In many instances, it is desirable to increase the number of compartments within a drawer.
Molded utensil trays having compartments for kitchen utensils or other small objects are conventionally placed loosely in the bottom of a drawer. In some instances, it is desirable to have even more compartments to increase the available number of compartmentalized storage sections in a drawer.
One approach to this problem is shown in a product catalog published by SieMatic Mobelwerke GmbH & Co. (SieMatic) at page 77, wherein specialized original equipment drawers having a slidable utensil tray are disclosed. The specialized drawer has a slidable tray which is built into the sides of the drawer. The sides of the drawer have milled slots extending from front to rear at an intermediate height on the inside wall of the drawer. The slidable tray has extensions on both sides which fit into the milled slot. The SieMatic drawer is well suited for drawers of new cabinet systems, but it is not well suited for retrofitting to existing drawers due to the difficulty of forming the guide slots in the sides of previously assembled drawers. In addition, assembly of the slidable tray to a standard drawer would be fairly complicated.
The milled slots in the sides of the drawers may create substantial friction which would resist easy movement of the tray slide. It is also not easily adapted for retrofit into different width drawers as would be essential to a simple and effective retrofit kit.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a multiple level compartmentalized storage tray which is suitable for retrofit to a wide range of drawer sizes.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a multiple level storage tray having a upper storage tray which is easily slidable in drawer guides between a closed position above a base tray slide and an open position wherein the upper tray slide is cantilevered through an opening in the back wall of the drawer.
An object of the present invention is to provide a multiple tiered drawer insert kit for retrofit in a standard drawer to increase the storage capacity of the drawer which is not difficult to install and does not require specialized tools for installation.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a two-tiered compartmentalized storage tray having an upper storage tray which is biased to the closed position as the drawer is opened.
These and other problems and disadvantages are overcome and the above objects are achieved by the present invention as will be more fully described below.